


An Innocent Game of Scrabble

by vibraniumkink



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Artist Steve Rogers, Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Bisexuality, Board Games, Bromance to Romance, Confident Bucky, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Past Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Period-Typical Homophobia, Pining, Pre war stucky, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Scrabble, Shy Steve, Shy Steve Rogers, Stucky - Freeform, pre war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 15:45:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7647076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vibraniumkink/pseuds/vibraniumkink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So… best friends had sex back then?” Bucky asked with a quirked brow, and the two men hold each other’s gaze a little longer than normal.<br/>“Yeah, I guess it’s a bonding thing,” Steve reckoned, eyes returning to the seven little wooden tiles and trying not to think about Bucky’s eyes. There was something softer about them than normal; Steve’s seen that same gaze from him when he looks at a beautiful girl. But there was no one else that could have triggered such a soft, tranquil look from him other than Steve now, and Steve, although anticipating and dreaming of a moment like this for who knows how long, has no earthly idea what to do now that it’s here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Innocent Game of Scrabble

Bucky whistles a slow, sweet tune and skips every other step up to the to the apartment that Steve and him share, waving and greeting a few neighbors on the way to the door. Thankful the door is unlocked because his hands are full, Bucky steps into the small, bare bones flat and shuts the door with his hip. He’s carrying a couple Coca Cola's and Scrabble, a game that Steve’s been wanting to play after seeing and hearing about it in advertisements.  
Steve was sitting idly on the worn down couch in the front room, reading an art textbook about Greek art he checked out from the college library.  
“Hey Buck.” Steve greets flatly, clearly immersed in his book and not looking up until Bucky sets the items down.  
“Guess what I just got?” Bucky sing songs, popping open the bottle caps from the Cokes on the counter, little puffs of soda scented air drifting up and meeting Bucky’s nostrils.  
“Two cokes and…” He squints at the box, leaning in.  
“Scrabble!” Steve beams, shutting his book and setting it down on the coffee table. He gets up and looks at the box, once getting his hands on it he opens it up and looks for the directions.  
“Welcome.” Bucky responds to the thank you he didn't get, looking over Steve's shoulder to read as well.  
“I was gonna thank you after reading the instructions.” He says snidely before giving Bucky a million dollar smile, bright and toothy.  
“C’mon, we can figure it out on the floor.” Bucky snatches the game and unfolds the board out onto the hardwood flooring, some nail heads sticking up here and there. When it's dark, you can see light coming from the floor. Steve brings the Cokes down, still reading the instructions.  
He summarizes what he read articulately, Bucky nodding and tapping the board.  
“I’ve been itching to play since you told me about it, Stevie. Let’s play.” He says eagerly, taking a sip of the Coke. Steve smirks at his enthusiasm and takes a sip too, then baring his teeth and inhaling through them after swallowing.  
“‘S wrong?” Bucky asks, looking at Steve with mild worry.  
“Too fizzy.” Steve answers, the moderate carbonation burning through his throat.  
“Ah. Just let it sit and go flat then.” Bucky provides a remedy that Steve was already going to do.  
“After the game I’ll drink it.”  
So the two start to play, stealing glances at one another, never to cheat, always just to see their faces, their hands across the board.  
Bucky lets out a little chuckle when he uses his remaining vowels, spelling out ‘ghoul’.  
Steve puts down ‘Greece’ into Bucky’s ‘ghoul’.  
“Didn’t you do a class for Greek art?” Bucky inquires, genuinely curious in what Steve’s learning.  
“We learned about it, yep. Really interesting culture.” Steve affirms while Bucky thinks of a next move.  
“What about it was so interesting?” Bucky asks. He’s seen postcards with shimmering gardens and epic Greek architecture, skimmed through Steve’s art studies to look for any Greek idealistic statues of nude women. Call him crude, he calls himself an ‘enthusiast of the female form in art’, once Steve asked why the hell he was so interested in a nude portrait of a woman he sketched.  
“Well, for one, they practiced pederasty, which was pairing adult men with younger boys and the two having a sexual relationship.” Steve educates him, carefully watching his reaction to test how Bucky feels about homosexuality.  
“That’s… a bit strange.” Bucky comments, not exactly knowing what to say.  
“Greeks didn’t see male and female, they saw, penetrator and the penetrated.” Steve elaborates, still cautiously watching Bucky.  
“So male and female. Female, penetrated, male, penetrator.” Bucky tries to simplify. He’s still caught up on the very people that invented the Olympics and democracy were okay with homosexuality, and if they were, why aren’t Americans?  
“No, no, y’see with two men, there can still be penetrated and penetrator. Ain't a male and female thing.”  
“Oh?” Bucky understands now, but has a childish smile, and that charm is coming back and replacing deep thought.  
“Would you be the penetrator or penetrated?” Bucky asks, cocking his head and secretly loving how red Steve gets.  
“Uh… haven’t thought about it…” Steve says nervously, just making this worse for himself because Bucky can see straight through his lies.  
“Sure ya have! You’ve studied it.” He pushes, leaning into the board game while Steve retreats uncomfortably, getting a couch cushion to rest his elbows on.  
“Fine,” Steve says looking away.  
“I’d rather be the penetrated one.” He admits, fingers pulling at a little loose string from the couch cushion.  
“I could see you doing both.” Bucky says confidently, but once he thinks over what he just said, his usual confidence washes away, a dumbfounded look replacing it.  
“Not that I’d… imagine you… in that way…” He reassures directly after, sounding ridiculously unconvincing. It’s almost like he wanted Steve to know he’s thought about it before. Steve looks suspiciously at him, on high fucking alert of any more strange behavior at the subject of homosexuality.  
Steve goes back to the game, Bucky relieved that Steve seems to have dropped it. Now Steve’s wondering if Bucky would prefer being penetrated or penetrating, and how ugly of a word penetrate is. "That’s it, penetrate!"  
He puts the word ‘penetrate’ on the board, and Bucky’s mind is back on it.  
They’re both quiet for awhile, Bucky drinking his Coke until Steve continues.  
“You’ve heard of Achilles, right?” He asks, breaking the silence finally.  
“Yeah, that fella with the Trojan horse?”  
“Yep. He was that way. His trainer, Patroclus and him. Achilles was the penetrated, AKA the eromenos. Patroclus was the erastes, the penetrator. That happened a lot too, between soldiers. Morale booster, and made the soldiers want to be brave for their lover. Friends too...” Steve added in the friend part, hoping to spark something with Bucky.  
“So… best friends that were men had sex. With each other.” Bucky asked with a quirked brow, and the two men hold each other’s gaze a little longer than normal.  
“Yeah, I guess it’s a bonding thing,” Steve reckoned, eyes returning to the seven little wooden tiles and trying not to think about Bucky’s eyes. There was something softer about them than normal; Steve’s seen that same gaze from him when he looks at a beautiful girl. But there was no one else that could have triggered such a blissful, dreamy, enchanted look from him other than Steve now, and Steve, although anticipating and dreaming of a moment like this for who knows how long, has no earthly idea what to do now that it’s here.  
“I don’t know if I can make a word.” Bucky blurts, Steve looking back at the board. Bucky has two Q’s, a Z, and no vowels, talk about unfair.  
“Me neither. Who’s genius idea was it to buy this game anyway?” Steve asks with a defiant smirk. It was totally Steve who planted the idea in Bucky’s head after seeing the game in a store window, thinking it would be a fun way for the two to relieve stress. All that the game is doing now though is making Steve’s head spin wondering what the hell Bucky’s intentions were, and his elbows hurt on the thin couch cushion.  
Bucky releases one halfhearted laugh, turning his letter board for Steve to see just how bad of a hand he’s been given. Steve looks at it with squinted lids, making out the letters and then shaking his head.  
“This game hates you.” He commented, putting in ‘reads’ through ‘Greece’.  
Bucky watches Steve’s mottled hands work over the board to place the letters in the right spot, cuticle covered fingers trying to get each tile just right despite his shakiness.  
“Steve,” Bucky says sternly after having enough of Steve trying to get the letter perfectly angled,  
“You know you’re just gonna keep having turn after turn without me getting a chance, right? You win already.”  
Steve looks up at Bucky through his dishwater blonde bangs, forehead crinkling as he retrieves more letters from the sack.  
“I know.” Steve affirms, triumph in his voice.  
“I just wanna win big.” He cocks his head at Bucky challengingly, and Bucky slides the board with all the tiles on it across the floor, the sound of it accompanying the noise of Bucky army crawling closer to Steve. Steve watches his beloved letter tiles scatter, then whines.  
“You win.” Bucky says again, mere inches away from his face. Steve sits up with crossed legs and swallows hard with his adam's apple bobbing, Bucky mirroring the position without the nervous throat movement. This was not was Steve was expecting, but who is he kidding--Bucky's a force of nature.  
Steve studies Bucky’s face, and Bucky moves his hands to Steve’s jaw. That hold that Steve’s wanted for so long, the same way Bucky fits a dame’s ear between his fore and middle finger, thumbs stroking the woman’s cheeks. And it’s him. That touch is there, the one he’s craved for years, the one he’s simulated himself by crossing his arms over and fantasizing it’s Bucky.  
This is the look, the way he holds someone’s face right before he kisses th--  
Perfection.  
A brief lip lock, soft between the two and leaving them both wanting more.  
“You have no idea how long I--” Bucky’s interrupted with a kiss, deeper and lasting longer than the previous one.  
“You and me both…” Steve mutters, pushing Bucky onto his back and kissing him even more, with tongue this time. Bucky tastes like cigarettes and Coca Cola, Steve tasting exactly the same now thanks to the kiss. Steve’s canopying over Bucky, on his hands and knees when Bucky’s hands wander down Steve’s sides.

**Author's Note:**

> About pederasty: I probably tweaked it a little.  
> It's late, I'll revise later. I don't like the title, I'm open to suggestions on a better title and/or if I should change anything.  
> If I get enough requests to write more, I just might ;p


End file.
